The Conversation

[Author's Note: This story is dedicated to Just Plain Bob, with thanks for all the enjoyment his stories have given to his many readers.]

*

Over dinner, while Julie was getting Tim more macaroni and cheese and I was wiping some of the ketchup off Will's face, I asked her if we could talk later.

"Just for a few minutes after the boys are in bed," I said.

"Sure, baby." She smiled at me from across the room. "What's up?"

"I don't want to get into it now," I smiled back, glancing at the boys.

So it wasn't until about 8:30, after Tim and Will had been bathed, put into pajamas, and had "Goodnight Moon" read to them for the 300th time, that Julie and I could sit down together in the living room. I brought in a couple of glasses and poured each of us some wine.

"You know how much I love you, right?" I began. Julie smiled and squeezed my hand affectionately.

"Of course, baby—and I love you. We are both pretty lucky."

"Okay," I said. "So, well—listen. Just, please, hear me out, okay? Let me say all of it before you jump in, so I can really explain."

She nodded, looking curious.

"I want to take a lover." Julie's mouth dropped open, and I could see she was about to say something, so I hurried on.

"Please, let me finish—not really a lover, just someone I'll be having sex with. It's Andrea Walden, the new assistant in Edward's office. We've gotten to be friends, had lunch a couple of times, and it turns out she's been divorced about eight months and is horny as hell. We both think we'd be great together, and she understands completely that I'm married and committed to you. So it wouldn't be a romance or anything like that.

"And the fact is, she's really hot. I think that fucking her will be great, and I'm looking forward to doing a lot of it."

Julie looked like she'd seen a ghost. I went on.

"Here's the thing, Jules—it would really be just for sex. I love you, you know that. And we have a great sex life. I love making love with you and I won't be giving up on that at all.

"It's just that, well, I'm feeling the need for some variety. I think it could help us, actually—maybe bring back some of the spark that we had when we first got together, that's been lost a bit after ten years.

"Whatever happens, you will always have my love—I will always be here with you, always fully committed to you and the boys. You won't be losing a thing, I promise.

"And I just couldn't do this behind your back—that would be cheating. So I figured the right thing was just to come out and talk to you about it. I felt sure you would see it my way."

I sat back. "So, honey—what do you think?"

I'd never seen Julie more at a loss. She looked shocked and disoriented, and I waited while she tried to figure out what to say.

"Dan, I—is this one of your jokes? You know, that dead-pan thing you do?"

Julie was referring to a frequent occurrence in our marriage: the times when she can't read my expression. I perfected a poker-face growing up, and in fact I won a great deal of money playing poker in college. So it's kind of a joke between us that she can't always tell if I'm angry, if I'm happy, if I'm kidding about something.

"Not at all, Julie," I said, "I'm completely serious."

"Well, I--wait, have you already...been with her?"

"No, sweetheart, I would never do that! I needed to talk to you first. But she and I are looking forward to spending Saturday afternoon together; I'm going to fuck her brains out!"

Another silence. Then she said, hesitantly: "Honey, I—I just don't...I mean, what about our wedding vows? You know, 'forsaking all others' and all that?"

I nodded my head. "Of course, Julie, we did both promise that. But this won't be like replacing you or anything. You will always be my wife, my lover, my partner, the mother of my children. This will just be a little fun I have on the side, something to keep me young, put a little spring in my step.

"And I promise, it will never affect anything between you and me."

Julie looked as uncomfortable as I'd ever seen her—pale, shaken, very uneasy.

"Dan, I—I just...Jesus, I have no idea what to say to you."

"How about if you think about it, sweetheart? Give it a day or two, and we'll talk about it again, okay?"

She nodded doubtfully. "That's...I guess that's all right," she said.

"Terrific!" I leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks, Jules—you're the best. I'm going to go see if I can catch the end of the Cardinals game. I'll be up to bed in a little while."

And with a smile, I got up and left the room.

****************

It was only a bit at a time that I had learned that Julie was cheating on me. Probably a good thing, because if I'd discovered it suddenly I might have just beaten the shit out of her, put Will and Tim in the car and gotten the hell out of town.

But as things happened it was gradual: a little doubt, a hint of suspicion, some looking around, more bits of evidence, and then finally the awful day when there was no longer any doubt about it.

I'm not even sure what first made me wonder. Was it noticing a couple of times when Julie came home from work and headed straight for the shower before even starting dinner? Or was it a subtle lessening of her interest in bed—not less frequent sex, but less enthusiasm?

In any case, once I started wondering I began seeing more things I wasn't happy about, and my wondering turned into worrying. One day she came into the house and went straight to the bedroom without taking off her coat. When she came back out a few minutes later she had changed her blouse.

So I waited until she was in the middle of cooking, then went and checked the laundry hamper in our bedroom. She'd pushed her blouse way down to the bottom, and I could see why: it had several stains on the front, droplets of what might have been vanilla milkshake but which smelled like semen.

Even then—and I guess I'm a cautious person—I didn't confront her. Julie and I had been happily married—very happily married—for eight years. Our two boys were five and three, and we both adored them. Julie was a terrific, loving mother; and I would have said a terrific, loving wife as well.

So I didn't confront her, not then, but I did invest in a small recorder for her car and a discreet tap for our home phone. I didn't have to worry about Julie using her cell at home, because our reception was terrible.

Within two days my worst fears were confirmed, and after another week of listening I pretty much knew the whole story. She'd been fucking Thomas Attlee, one of the other fourth-grade teachers at her elementary school, for about three months. And she'd been telling her best friend Ruth all about it.

It was easy for her and Attlee to arrange some motel time a couple of afternoons a week, because school ended by 2:30 and she didn't need to pick up the boys at day care until 5:00. Julie routinely stayed after school to work in her classroom a couple of days each week, so I had no reason to wonder where she was. And on the days they were off bouncing on a bed somewhere, the other teachers just assumed she'd gone home a little earlier.

From the phone calls between Ruth and Julie, it appeared that Attlee had pursued her, though she hadn't fought him off too hard. Within about two months of starting to flirt with Julie he'd gotten in her pants. Since then they'd been screwing regularly, with no sign of ending it.

And the excuses Julie made to Ruth for her behavior were classic—all the bullshit justifications that I suppose cheaters have been using since the dawn of history.

"It's not anything about Dan, Ruth, you know that—I adore him. And our sex life is great! It's just, I don't know, a little something extra for myself. Just for me—like a secret hot fudge sundae.

"What I'm doing will never hurt him. Dan knows how much I love him, and we make love just as much now as before. In fact I make sure of that. There's no way Dan could say I'm depriving him.

"Above all, it's just sex with Thomas. It's hot—really hot!—but it's just fucking. There's no romance, no 'darling let's run away together'." She giggled. "I just want his hard cock, and he just wants my pussy—" she giggled again, "or occasionally my ass, and that's fine. So there's no way it's a threat to anything between Dan and me.

"In a way, it's probably even good for us! Because being with Thomas is, you know, it's exciting. It makes me feel young again, and sexy, not like a schoolteacher-housewife who's getting up into her mid-thirties. And Dan gets the benefit of that."

I won't even try to describe the kind of pain I went through, listening to all that. She didn't say those things all at once, but in different conversations I recorded with Ruth. (Apparently she didn't talk on the phone with Attlee at all—they must have made all their arrangements in quick conversations at school.)

The worst was the happiness in her voice, the laughter and pleasure, the fun she was having: I have a great marriage, a great husband, and fucking another guy on the side just makes it all that much better!

I did want to kill her. I wanted to confront her at Thanksgiving in front of the whole family—or get pictures of her and Attlee fucking and give a slide show to the PTA. I wanted to drive away with Tim and Will and leave her in an empty house, wondering if she'd ever see us again.

I had some truly miserable days, and I couldn't entirely conceal my feelings. Even Julie noticed—she kept asking me why I was so down in the dumps, and trying to cheer me up. She made me a peach pie; she got a sitter and took me out to the movies; she even arranged for her mom to take the boys for a sleepover one Saturday night, and she bought a sexy black nightie and a bottle of champagne and gave me a night of seduction and sex.

My sore and angry heart didn't prevent me from enjoying the three rounds of fucking we did that night. I don't know what was in her head--what was in mine was "this is my whore of a wife, but she seems to still love me and want me to be happy, so I might as well enjoy what I'm getting."

But did it make me feel any better about what was going on? About being cuckolded? Fuck no.

****************

When I came down to breakfast the day after telling her about Andrea, Julie was a changed woman. She'd gotten up extra early and not only made the usual breakfast for the kids, but cooked eggs and bacon and pancakes for me.

She smiled at me when I came into the kitchen, brought me a cup of coffee and gave me a long, loving kiss. But the look in her eyes was tentative, even frightened.

"Morning, Julie--thanks for the coffee. What's with the big breakfast? It looks great!"

She smiled happily. "Oh, I just thought you needed a little fattening-up; I don't want you to waste away to nothing."

I thought she'd head upstairs and get the boys out of bed, but instead she plopped herself down on my lap and twined her arms around my neck.

"Got time for a quickie? I think you might like what's under this robe."

I opened it to find she was naked underneath, those pretty breasts and that dark bush right in front of my eyes. Without a word I picked her up in my arms and headed for the living room couch, where I laid her down on her back and pulled down my pants.

Julie giggled, then reached for my cock and took it into her mouth, sucking on me while I stroked her tits. As soon as she had me hard enough she dragged me on top of her and we fucked energetically, her hands pulling on my ass to get me deeper inside her.

This had to be the first weekday morning fuck we'd had in years, I thought--perhaps since the days before we had the boys. It didn't last long but I enjoyed every bit of it.

And the rest of the week was full of similar surprises. Julie was attentive and very affectionate. She made sure we made love every night--though to me, torn between my love for her and my rage, it felt like fucking. One night I got the longest and most sensual blowjob of my life.

Outside the bedroom, she was equally devoted: the dinners were delicious, she was doing more than her share of taking care of Will and Tim, and in every way I was being treated like a king. Clearly she was scared to death.

I hadn't brought up Andrea again, waiting to see if Julie would mention it; or, if not, what Saturday would bring.

When the weekend came, it didn't take long for her plan to be clear. Julie let me sleep an extra hour, fending off the boys when they wanted to come in and jump on our bed. By the time I came down for coffee, Will and Tim were off for the day with Arlene, their favorite babysitter.

Julie smiled at me, fed me another great breakfast, then dragged me back to the bedroom. Her intention was obviously to fuck me half to death so I couldn't go have sex with Andrea, and I let her do it. She was a wild woman: the menu included another great blowjob and a round of anal sex, something Julie does for me only rarely. I'd had three great orgasms by 11:30 am and there wasn't anything left.

So she was pretty shocked and unhappy when I appeared downstairs at 12:30, all shaved and showered and dressed for a date, the car keys in my hand.

"I should be back by around 4:30, babe," I said cheerfully, and she stared at me in dismay.

"But, but Dan--I thought that ... that, well, after this morning--" she smiled at me, "you wouldn't be...going to, uh, see Andrea today."

I chuckled. "It WAS great, baby--I don't think we'll be doing any fucking today, Andrea and I. But we made a date to get together, and it would be rude of me to cancel on her. We'll probably just have some lunch, maybe make out for a while, I don't know." And with that I gave her a big kiss and headed out the door.

I treated myself to lunch at Dominic's, where I caught up with the sports page, and then went to see an action flick that I knew wouldn't interest Julie. I was back home by 4:00 or so. Julie lifted her head from the Candyland game she was playing with the boys and looked at me reproachfully but said nothing; I could tell she'd been crying.

****************

It surprised me a little that Julie hadn't talked to me again about my plan to take Andrea as a lover; but I knew from her phone calls with Ruth that she was totally at a loss.

"How can he even think about fucking someone else? Don't I give him all the loving he wants, and more?"

Ruth laughed. "Says the girl who's been bonking Thomas Attlee for three months! How's that any different? Wouldn't Dan say he's been giving you all that YOU wanted?"

Julie whimpered, "I know, I know. But that was, I don't know, harmless. You know--casual fucking, it didn't mean anything. Just for fun.

"But if Dan starts having sex with Andrea--I mean, he said she's incredibly sexy! What if he prefers her to me? We've been together ten years, how can I compete with someone new like that?"

Ruth didn't let her off the hook. "You mean, like Dan not being able to compete with Thomas?"

"Dammit, Ruth, whose side are you on?" Julie cried. "I'm really suffering here, and I haven't got the slightest idea what to do!"

"Okay, okay, honey," Ruth said soothingly. "Of course I'm on your side. But you've got to see that what Dan is planning to do is pretty much what you've been doing."

"I know," Julie said morosely. There was a silence.

"Well, I have decided one thing--it's over with Thomas. I told him in the Teacher's Lounge yesterday. I sometimes can't even believe I let it happen in the first place."

Ruth snorted. "Let it happen? Julie, you make it sound like an accident, like a fender-bender or something. You've been balling the guy for three months!"

"Oh, shut the fuck up! What the hell kind of friend are you?" Julie yelled, and there was a loud bang as she slammed down the phone.

****************

On Monday at about 4:00 pm, I looked up to find a very angry Andrea Walden standing in front of my desk.

"Is your wife a fucking psychopath or what?" she demanded.

Startled, I got up to close my office door, then politely asked Andrea to sit down and tell me what was going on.

"About a half hour ago, a woman came into my office and asked if I was Andrea. When I said yes she leaned over my desk, stuck a finger in my face and told me she was your wife and to stay the hell away from you!"

I laughed aloud, then quickly stopped when I saw Andrea's furious glare.

"I'm sorry--I'll explain the whole thing. What did you say to her?"

"I said I had no idea what she was talking about--because I had no idea what she was talking about!"

"Did she leave?"

"No, she started screaming at me! You were HER husband, she loved you, and I had no right to fuck around in your marriage. After about a minute of that shit I picked up the phone and told her I'd call security if she wasn't out of my office in ten seconds.

"So she left, but not before giving me one last 'I'm warning you!'

"Just the what the FUCK is going on here, Dan?"

"I'm truly sorry, Andrea--I never dreamed anything like this would happen."

I quickly filled her in on my having discovered that Julie was cheating on me; and before I could continue she interrupted me.

"So what the hell are you playing at? Why don't you dump the bitch and go on with your life?"

I sighed. "It's complicated. My parents split up when I was a kid and it was an awful mess. My mom moved us far away, we had to start a new school, we hardly ever got to see my dad... Just take it from me, it sucked, and I really don't want to do that to Will and Tim, not if there's any way to avoid it.

"And then...well, to put it simply, I still love the stupid cunt. She's been a selfish little fool, but I know that she loves me." I told Andrea about the phone conversations that I'd been listening to for weeks.

"I don't know if we can get past this--sometimes I'm so angry I can't see straight. But I wasn't ready to just toss her ass out."

Andrea looked thoughtful. "And exactly how do I come into all of this?"

I laughed again. "Please forgive me. I decided to shake things up a bit. I told Julie last week that you and I were going to start an affair."

"What?!"

Smiling, I filled her in on the rest of that conversation.

"Okay," she said, "I guess...but why me?" She was smiling despite herself.

"Well, that question is easy. You're by far the most attractive woman in the building, Andrea. There's not a straight man here who wouldn't love to take you to bed. I'd already mentioned you a couple of times to Julie, and she had a pretty good idea of how hot you are."

Andrea smiled, and seemed to blush a little. "What a bullshitter you are, Dan! I don't mind hearing it, though.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"To tell the truth I don't have it completely worked out. I never thought she'd come in here and confront you like that--clearly the thought of me with someone else has got her pretty freaked out.

"She's already ended her own affair. And she'll obviously know that you would come tell me about her little visit today. So I imagine that when I get home she'll explain to me why you and me screwing would be bad for our marriage.

"Though how she'll be able to say it with a straight face is beyond me."

Still smiling, Andrea moved to the door. Just before she opened she turned and faced me.

"Well, keep me posted, okay? I seem to be in the middle of all this, thanks to your over-active imagination!

"And Dan?" She winked at me. "Let me know when we're starting our affair--I don't want to miss it."

****************

Julie had a half-defiant, half-frightened look on her face when I walked into the kitchen, but I ignored it.

"Hi sweetie," I said, and kissed her on the cheek. "How are the little guys?"

"They're fine--they're inside watching Barney."

"Listen Julie, I want to--"

She cut me off. "How about we save that conversation for later, all right?"